Tykhestan
| Tykhestan Interim District Provisional Government | ||||||||||||||||
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“Heaven grant thee good,” said Arthur. “And where, Iddawc, didst thou find these little men?”
“I found them, lord, up yonder on the road.” Then the Emperor smiled.
“Lord,” said Iddawc, “wherefore dost thou laugh?”
“Iddawc,” replied Arthur, “I laugh nor; but it pitieth me that men of such stature as these should have this Island in their keeping, after the men that guarded it of yore.”
- The Dream of Rhonabwy
Theme: The Ostrogothic Kingdom of Space Soissons
Sub-Theme: Juntas and Uniforms
Today
In better days the orbits between Mars and Jupiter were inhabited by billions living in artificial habitats and hollowed out asteroid colonies, some clustered together to form vast shoals and reefs, scattered along a glittering torus. Standing on any of the major solar bodies the human occupied asteroid belt seemed like a river of lights encompassing the Sun, for which it was named the Solar Girdle. It is hard to imagine the provenance of the appellate today: it is a blighted ruin now.
For those seeking to journey across the Solar System, the lawless and violent band of space between Mars and Jupiter is often one of the most dangerous stretches of their journey. The Civil War and Long Night reduced to techno-barbarism and brigandry many of those trapped outside of Poleis proper.
Still, pockets of stability remain to open to travelers. Chief amongst these oasis is Tykhestan. The administrative machinery is essentially that of a provincial office of the Solar Commonwealth: a Logothete and their staff arbitrating between member states and providing services. To this day, its citizens continue to maintain that Tykhestan is simply an interim District of the Commonwealth, not an independent nation. A remarkable . The Provisional Government insists all traffic through Tykhestan space must abide by ancient Commonwealth era Navigation Law and Procedure.
The physical task of waging the long war against the myriad marauders and hostile techno-barbarian kingdoms of the belt, however, falls most heavily not on the native citizens of Tykhestan but on a vashtof the nomadic comet-riders from Beyond who claim descent from military outrider patrols of the Kuiper sent in the days of the Commonwealth. Called the Setarehzan Paradraya, they are a nation unto themselves in their long ships, under separate military law, the authority of the Rauka, and their own customs over which the civilian officials of Tykhestan have relatively little influence. Nevertheless while the Logothete and the Rauka hold independent sovereignty the two offices formed a flexible but strong union; the Rauka is charged with the Military Tally, collective authority over the respective National Guard forces of the Districts. In practice the daily operation of the union oft remarked to resemble a constitutional elective monarchy, with the Logothete acting akin to the prime minister of a technocratic bureaucracy for the Rauka.
Tykhestan is a major industrial powerhouse in the system. While much reduced in efficiency by the Civil War and the Long Night, it retains extensive manufactory infrastructure in all fields related to ships. Unfortunately centuries of desperately necessary central control related to military quotas and laboring under limited resources stunted the production of non-military goods.
Rumors of a supposed “Salvation Council” are absolutely untrue hearsay and rumor.
History
The Tykhestan Interim District Provisional Government
"But soon Khronos that accomplishes all will pass the portals of our house, and then all pollution will be expelled from the hearth by cleansing rites that drive out calamity. The dice of Tykhe will turn as they fall and lie with faces all lovely to behold, favorably disposed to whoever stays in our house."
- Aeschylus, Libation Bearers
The main belt was the site of humanity’s earliest successful homesteading attempts beyond earth orbit as a natural extension of various waystation projects and mining operations. The region’s runaway development soon made it highly attractive to the mother nations in the Earth sphere and soon enough paid witness to the first brushfire wars and proxy conflicts. While the Solar Girdle emerged as the industrial heartland of the Solar System the Great Powers jockeyed all the more violently with each other for influence and control over the colonies.
The formation of the Solar Commonwealth freed many colonies from the control of their parent nations. To better adjudicate localized conflicts amongst the newly emerging political units of the Main Belt and administrate services, LOGOS divided the Solar Girdle into a number of Districts which defined the jurisdiction of specialized staff headed by a special magistrate known as the Logothete. It was their function to handle the daily minutiae of Commonwealth government for the member states of the Solar Girdle. While many of these Districts were reorganized, partitioned, or disbanded over the centuries a few core districts remained more or less in their original shapes, such as Hōrai District.
Hōrai District originally encompassed in its demesne the Eunomia Republic, the Kubileya Reef Union States, the New Vraspakania and Horizon Shoal Zones and just under a six hundred thousand citizens.
The golden days of the Commonwealth seemed infinite but nothing truly lasts forever, and the shadow of Nemesis suddenly loomed over the Solar System. Whether a symptom of its increasingly erratic schizophrenia or in service of some inscrutable design it never fully accomplished LOGOS began a series of sweeping reforms and restructuring of the District system, expanding the powers of its local officers and revising their areas of responsibility. As part of these changes it would appoint Soffiya Poklonskaya to the post of Logothete Hōrai.
Various factions under the direction of fragments of LOGOS attempted to seize control of polities in the main belt in a blinkered effort to secure industry and resources to pursue futile survival plans. In the self-immolation of the Commonwealth, the Solar Girdle became a particularly ferocious battleground as manned fleets clashed with each other and the wrath of terrible engines locked away in secret arsenals were turned loose. War, against all by all, trampled the Solar Girdle with bloody footsteps. It is a grim irony that while it was the Solar Girdle that most vulnerable to the cometary bombardment, the fury of the Civil War robbed the vast majority its population to secure themselves in proper safeholds of the Polis type before the vanguard of Nemesis had arrived.
By the end of it all Hōrai District had somehow escaped more or less intact, if battered, having accrued the detritus of other districts and a few orphaned warships with no orders anymore. All other lights in the Solar System it seemed had winked out and the survivors were alone in the sea of static, the lingering backwash of weapons. As Nemesis approached, Logothete Soffiya Poklonskaya declared the dissolution of the Hōrai District and the institution of an interim District of Tykhestan, defiantly named after the sister of Nemesis, officially encompassing the whole of its constituency.
Tykhestan entered the Long Night.
The Beyonders
In an age of legends it is said that by the will of LOGOS our great ancestors traveled far from shores of the Sun in the long ships to chart the Sea of the Deep Black on glittering sails, lances at the ready. They would come to call the Deep Black their new home for few came back ashore at all; we were already the Setarehzan then, Star Trail Lancers, we who ride the Comet’s Tail! We knew each of the comets in the Kuiper and the Oort far beyond as though they were sheep. The laws they lived under, which they passed down to us, was the military law. For we were more than shepards, but warriors also, outriders shielding the shore in concert with Monster.
Alas could our ancestors have known that the enemy to come was beyond the power of their lances to vanquish? Woefully our lances were stained with bloody kinstrife and the Deep Black was lit by the brief candlelight of the dying, but no amount of brother and sister killing would set aright what had gone awry in the Commonwealth, traitors though they be. And all the while Nemesis came ever closer; we and other comet riders could survive easily enough her passing in the seas Beyond. Those ashore, though, could any of them truly survived?
For centuries we bode our time in the dark seas, hunting traitors amidst the shower of comets and the lingering tears they left behind whilst Monster raged blindly. Many generations of Raukas discussed what if anything should be done. Finally, it was decided that of our vasht would follow one of the darts of Nemesis onto Sunlit shores: our long ships were the swiftest and our Rauka’s mind the keenest, as sharp as our lances. Riding the Comet’s Tail we flew ashore and there found naught but evil to every side. For a moment we despaired of finding anything left to save, till we found Good Fortune waiting for us.
In her embrace we have lived ever since. Our cousins in the ancestral homeland and all the world know us as the Paradraya, beyond the Sea. We shall not see them again until the Commonwealth is restored.
Tykhestan Provisional Government Annual Report, 4500 A.D.
The Tykhestan Reef Provisional Government
Population
Major Polis (26 points to spend): A large Polis with a substantial, diverse population and possibly satellite habitats outside of the Polis proper. Adds an additional 250 Military Points, 300 Military Support, 25 Wealth and 25 Construction Rate but suffers -1 to Growth Potential.
National Advantages:
Rank 2 (2 points)
- Barbarian Allies
- Excellent Diplomats
National Disadvantages:
Rank 2 (+2 points)
- Ascended Barbarians
- Barbarian Backyard
Economy:
Rank 2 (2 points)
- Wealth Rating 70 + 25
Infrastructure:
Rank 4 (4 points)
- Construction Rating 110 + 25
Growth Potential:
Rank 3 - 1 (3 points)
- x4 Infrastructure Cost
Espionage:
Rank 3 (4 points)
General Advancement:
Rank 0
Setarehzan Paradraya
"Star Trail Lancers Beyond the Sea"
Military Size:
Rank 3 (3 points)
- Military Points 490 + 250
Military Support:
Rank 4 (4 points)
- Military Support 825 + 300
Military Quality:
Rank 3 (5 points)
Superweapons:
Rank 0
Listen!
Oh wicked ones we, Tykhe who braved the shower of heavenly darts and we the Lancers who rode the Comet's tail, say this: The evil sway of Invidia has stolen the the children of the Sun. Who know remembers the Common Weal? The world is wracked by kinstrife, good things are stolen from the mouths of the unborn, nothing passes the lips save awful calumny. All have forgotten the sweet voice of LOGOS though the shadow of Nemesis has passed. You faithless ones; the Commonwealth is not suspended, LOGOS is not silent. Listen! If the living will not heed, we will break in the doors and smash the bolts; there will be confusion of people, those above with those who slumbered below. We shall bring up the sleepers to drink the light like the living and the hosts of the sleepers will outnumber the living.